Preaching on Doubt
Cardinal Lomelli (Ralph Fiennes) preaches a sermon on doubt during a Catholic assembly to elect a new pope in the movie, "Conclave." (Publicity Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
March 1, 2025
My retired clergy support group recently went to see the movie Conclave. As you may know, Conclave was nominated for numerous Oscars, including best picture, best actor, and best supporting actress. The film, based on a novel of the same title, tells the fictional story of selecting a new pope for the Catholic Church.
The main character of the movie, Cardinal Lomeli, served as dean of the College of Cardinals, which placed him in charge of leading the papal election. Early in the film, as the cardinals gathered to elect their new pope, Cardinal Lomeli spoke to his colleagues about the important relationship between faith and doubt.
The Sin of Certainty
He said, “Over the course of many years in the service of our mother the Church, there is one sin I have come to fear above all others: certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ he cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross. Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a pope who doubts.”
Cardinal Lomeli understood that faith and doubt go together. We certainly see that in Scripture. Almost every major character in the Bible had times of doubt including Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Job, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Mary, Joseph, Thomas, Peter, and many others. That same dynamic is true throughout Christian history including Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Mother Teresa.
In a recent survey of a thousand people (church members and nonchurch members), 95 percent of them acknowledged that they sometimes harbor religious doubts. For example, many of them expressed doubts about the Bible, heaven, hell, and the impact of prayer. And almost all of them wondered why God allowed innocent people to suffer.
“I Worry About People Who Never Have Any Doubts.”
These kinds of doubts are not a bad thing. As pastor and author Adam Hamilton said in a recent podcast, “I worry about people who never have any doubts. We’re meant to engage our intellect. We’re meant to ask questions, to be critical thinkers. And I think that’s something that’s missing oftentimes in churches and faith communities.”
Three of my favorite verses in the Bible are: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 NKJV). “But some doubted” (Matt 28:17 NIV). And, “Be merciful to those who doubt” (Jude 22 NIV). These passages remind me that doubt is not the enemy of faith but part of faith. They also inform my work as the “pastor” of Doubter’s Parish website, which seeks to help thinking people navigate faith in the twenty-first century.
Cardinal Lomeli in the movie Conclave was right. Faith and doubt go hand in hand and always have. And while it may seem counterintuitive, this ageless mixture of belief and unbelief provides significant value to the Christian faith. Religious doubt can lead to a more authentic and mature faith, including the embrace of divine mystery, theological modesty, spiritual ambiguity, and the limits of institutional religion. I like to call this “the benefit of the doubt.” As Tennyson once said, “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”
Many years ago, someone asked American author Madeleine L’Engle, “Do you believe in God without any doubts?” She replied, “I believe in God with all my doubts.”
That sounds just about right.
NOTE: If you would like to read additional articles (or books) that I’ve written on the subject of doubt, here are some of my favorites: